IF THERE IS ANYONE BIASED TOWARDS THE SPORT ITS THIS A$$HOLE RIGHT HERE....HE HATES ON ALOTTA FIGHTERS WITHOUT GIVING RESPECT TO EM WHERE ITS DUE!:nono
I am not sure Mayweather paved the way for anything. His record still does not equal a great fighters record and he had no great fights. You will see in many years how he is rated. He has to come back and beat Pacman and maybe Mosley for a decent legacy. What he has now is a lot of talk about how he dominated guys he should have dominated. What recognition will he get for beating up Baldomir? He did not fight a fellow great who was prime like he was. In a way Hearns/Hagler/Leonard and Duran paved the way for any non heavyweights of the future since they were superstars at those weights when previosly there were none. Jones or Delahoya took the safety first route. We thought maybe they would have eras which equalled the greats like Hagler and Hearns, and they didn't -not in excitement and coming to fight. I have watched boxing for years and Jones and Delahoya in my mind were on top because they were the best, but not because they were anything special in comparison to the guys 10 years preceding them. There will always be the top guys who are good, yet it does not mean they were fighters who transcended boxing which is sort of what you are saying Mayweather did. No way. He only cared about himself and his ego. But if you look at Hearns comments for years he said his main objective was to give fans what they paid for. Just a different attitude. Ali, Foreman,Frazier,Norton,Hearns,Hagler,Leonard,Duran. they were the fighters whom sort of changed boxing. Not that they were greater than anyone else, but they came to fight and thier eras changed boxing. Norton is an example of this. Many guys would beat up Norton. Peter might beat Norton, but he was in that era of boxing which made a difference. My point in this is that Jones and Delahoya and especially Mayweather did not change much in boxing.
My point is, if a guy like Mayweather can graps the imagination of non traditional fans, and bring them to the sport he has to be good for the sport, why cus he is bringing in money that would other wise be spent on Nsync and britney spears concerts, how else do you think P4Pdabest got here, or Pimp C or Eze or Fitzgerald?